Post Captain (novel)

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Post Captain is a 1972 historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is second in the Aubrey–Maturin series of stories set in the early-nineteenth century, concerning the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and naval surgeon Stephen Maturin. It has been described as Patrick O'Brian's tribute to Jane Austen with part of it set in the domestic English countryside and the interaction of families.

Plot introduction

The novel starts during the Peace of Amiens. Jack Aubrey sets up a bachelor household in a country district, becoming friendly with a neighbouring household with several marriageable daughters. When he falls into financial difficulty, he leaves England with his friend Stephen Maturin. When the Peace is ended, they escape from France and return to England. Aubrey pleads for any ship. After many tribulations and disagreements with Maturin and others, he is eventually successful in his career.

Characters in "Post Captain"

Jack Aubrey - Commander of the Polychrest and later appointed Captain of HMS Lively.

Allusions

History

Stephen, in presenting his radical position against the tyranny of the navy in a fit of rage, says that he would "certainly have joined the mutineers" had he been at the Spithead Mutiny. [1]

Literature

In a conversation with MacDonald, Stephen argues about the various qualities of the gaelic poet Ossian's writing and authenticity.[2] This references similar controversy which had arisen during the period about the true authorship of James Macpherson's translation of his epic cycle, and continues to be questioned today in literary circles. In this same conversation, MacDonald references the Roman legal principle "falsum in unam, falsum in omnibus," which translates to "false in one thing, fall in all things."[2]

Literary significance & criticism

"Master and Commander raised almost dangerously high expectations, Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them. Mr. O'Brian is a master of his period, in which his characters are finely placed, while remaining three-dimensional, thoroughly human beings. This book sets him at the very top of his genre; he does not just have the chief qualifications of a first-class historical novelist, he has them all. The action scenes are superb; towards the end, far from being aware that one is reading what is, physically, a fairly long book, one notes with dismay that there is not much more to come....A brilliant book." — Mary Renault, on Post Captain[4]